


What if Someone Vicious Had Entered: Part II

by S A G (setgree)



Series: What if Someone Vicious Had Entered? [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25885969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setgree/pseuds/S%20A%20G
Summary: This is Part II of "What if Someone Vicious had Entered?"It mostly takes place at Hogwarts in the fall of 1997.
Series: What if Someone Vicious Had Entered? [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1878430





	What if Someone Vicious Had Entered: Part II

**Part II: Hogwarts**

_"Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again."_

_\- The Road_

**Chapter 7**

**Sarah**

The four days of training Harry and his friends before Bill and Fleur's wedding were pretty nice, and then the Death Eaters killed the Minister of Magic and invaded the Burrow, which was not so nice. The day before she took her boys and scrammed, Hermione finally approached me to talk privately. After dinner, we walked through the local village.

Things had briefly gone south between Ron and Lev in training. While practicing wandless apparition, we had noticed that Ron was just keeping his wand up his sleeve. So Lev had picked Ron up by the throat, taken his wand, and, once the wand was pocketed, hit Ron hard enough to break his nose and knock him to the ground, at which point Lev had screamed at him for not taking the mission seriously, gesticulating with a loaded gun. Jess had led Lev away, but not before telling Ron, who was sobbing, to ‘stop being such a fucking baby.’ Hermione had looked shocked, and I had expected her to want to talk about it. But her particular questions surprised me.

“You haven’t identified yourself," she said, “except by first name. I assume that was intentional?"

“No," I said. “I just figured the names wouldn’t mean anything."

“Can I take a guess then? Are you with the Stadler-Li crew?"

“Yes," I said, surprised. “Lev is Lev Stadler. His grandfather Lucas and Patricia Li are the namesakes. How did you know?"

“A guess. How many wizard militias can there be in America?"

“More than you’d think, but yes, we’re the main one. What do you know about us?"

“I know …listen, Sarah, there are some mentions of you all in the histories of magical Britain, and I don’t have anything written in the past few years, but what I do have is, you might say, very unflattering to you all. And there are weird discrepancies between accounts, but I’ve…what I’ve gathered is that after World War II, after Grindelwald and Hitler teamed up, the wizards got together and decided on magical neutrality in muggle politics. And you all are the enforcers. But everything surrounding that agreement is super oblique."

“Yeah," I said. “That’s not really about the deal but what came before. Grindelwald had command of a pretty large segment of German forces. And he’d enchanted them to go berserk at a word. Dumbledore was the one to take the man himself out. Some prophecy or something. But he had to get through Grindelwald troops first. So he called Patricia and Lucas, who’d been neutral to that point. Whatever deal they struck with Dumbledore, it worked, and the two of them got a team together and wiped out probably 30,000 Axis troops getting Dumbledore into place. When the dust settled, I think the wizards decided they’d prefer to chalk it all up to the Allies, so the whole thing got called the Battle of Berlin and hushed."

“And …after the war?" she asked.

“Well, after Japan surrendered, the wizards got together at Yalta to figure things out, and Lucas and Patricia were holding a lot of the bargaining chips. Dumbledore was telling anyone who’d listen that he’d fought his last battle and was going to teach for the rest of his life, so he sat that one out. No one talks about it, but I think Lucas all but explicitly threatened that if the non-American powers didn’t go along with his way of things by cooperation, they would be going along by force. He had Truman’s full support and people were really frightened of the bomb at that point. Not to mention Patricia and her allies were backing him up, so that was that."

“Anyway, so, they came up with some rules. No horcruxes, no time travel, no seeking control of Muggle affairs, and no coercing or killing muggles except to enforce the Statute of Secrecy. Wizard vs. wizard affairs were left to individual countries to deal with. Magical Britain is a nominal signatory to those accords, but you all carved out some really serious limits to international involvement and surveillance, which is probably why Voldermort almost won in the 70s. We would have killed him if the laws had been more permissive. Almost got him in Albania. Does this jive with what you’ve read?"

“Basically. So, someone had to enforce these rules, and Lucas nominated himself to do it?"

“That’s my impression, yes. Lucas is a smart guy, but he’s no politician, and I think he recognized that policing was his calling. So the wizards set up the Council of Supervisors in Geneva, and Lucas and Patricia put together a team to bully people into following the rules. Patricia brought my grandparents in. I’m three generations Stadler-Li and proud, Hermione."

“So, then, if Britain isn’t really part of the pact, what are you doing here? I mean, this is involvement, right?”

“Well, right now we’re just hanging out, that’s kosher, but the battle we just fought … you remember my last conversation with Moody? About, why would my parents send their daughter into combat?”

“Vaguely -- he was acting weird, I didn’t really get it.” 

“Yeah, I’m thinking he was going for plausible deniability. The deal with Britain is, if someone takes a shot at a minor in our crew, we have _jus ad bellum_ , and I’m 16, as Moody reminded everyone. I think someone in my crew was hoping that the Death Eaters would take a shot at me. When they did, I sent a distress beacon out, something my mom and I set up a long time ago to let her know if I’m in trouble and where I’m at. I don’t know if you heard the chimes and the siren at the end, but that was them; it’s kind of our calling card, like how Muggle armies carry standards. I mean the DEs could always take this thing to Geneva and argue that when we ginned up the Harry disguises, we voided the arrangement and so they were out of line to show up. I guess we’ll see.”

“And …who guards you? Who watches the watchmen Sarah?"

“Huh. What do the books say?"

“Nothing. That’s the thing. I have a history of 20th century magical Britain and the chapter seems to trail off right when it gets there. The book all but calls you neo-imperialist, hegemonic tyrants and then hints that something even worse keeps you in check."

“That… is remarkably close to the truth. Listen, when you need a complex task accomplished, like monitoring compliance with lengthy and specific laws and enforcing those laws with a minimum of civilian casualties, human intelligence is unparalleled. But if you need to just kill someone, no questions asked, no other considerations important, you’re better off contracting out. So, if one of us breaks the rules, we’d end up facing down one of the truly ancient demons. It wouldn’t be fun. There would be destruction for miles. Once they get a hold of you, it would probably be death for everyone they could find you closely associating with in your memories. It’s a pretty strong disincentive if there is anything in the world you value."

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah. That’s why that didn’t make its way into the books. Horcrux spell is hard to detect, but time spells aren’t. Nobody I know messes with either. Except of course you Brits who carved out an exception for Ministry-regulated time-turners before team Harry threw that all to shit. Thank you for that, by the way."

“Um," she said. “You’re welcome. Ok. I think I can fill in the answer to this. But I figured I’d ask. That same book implies that you all went rogue in the 1980s. The author, Bagshot, she quotes some anonymous politician who calls you ‘war criminals.’ Something about executing Death Eaters after Voldermort died?"

“You as much as know the whole story," I said. “One of ours, Liz Loew, got a crew together to target folks who we were dead sure had tortured or killed non-wizards of their own volition. That meant going after a lot of them in their homes, and a few pretty prominent people got axed. And their spouses. When the Ministry made a fuss about it, Liz went to discuss the issue with then-Minister Bagnold and took along a fairly high-ranking member of the Reagan Department of Defense. Afterwards the whole thing got reclassified as joint operations and then squashed."

We walked in silence for a while.

“So," she said. “Darren."

“Yes."

“Do you want to tell me about it?"

“No," I said. “I don’t want to at all. But I will. Darren Joseph Loew was a member of our crew, Lev’s best friend and for a little while his boyfriend, one year older than us, who got killed in combat two years ago, the same day as Jess’s mom."

“So, we have two main groups of enemies. The first is some wizards who think that non-wizards can’t be trusted with nuclear firepower, and should be controlled. That was mostly a political dispute though. And then, back when Voldermort started taking over, we learned that Grindelwald's second-in-command, an American named Jonathan Putnam, hadn’t died, but had been underground and had allied with Voldermort. And then he got some of those dissenters on board with taking down Geneva and us. It was pretty close to coming to World War, but when Voldermort bit it, a lot of the more moderate folks came in from the cold."

“But not Putnam. We skirmished with him for about twenty years. Coming on 15 years ago, Jess’s dad died in combat. And then, August 12th, 95, we had a traitor who led him and a strike team in: trained military, Dementors, Giants, wizards, the works."

“Putnam went after a training class first, that Darren and a few others were in, and his soldiers got Jess’s mom. The three of us had been out training with Lev’s mom, and when we got called back, it was a massive firefight. We had a plan for this kind of thing, and the adults moved into defensive spots we’d carved out, shut the enemies’ escape lines down, and got the children into a heavily armored underground bunker that could withstand the next best thing to nuclear war. It was our safest spot, so we brought all the wounded and dead there. Darren’s dad brought his body in, and Jess’s mom got dragged in. Valerie died there, with us. We all watched it."

“And Jess went ballistic. She got up. Blew the door off the shelter, flew straight up, and brought down a fireball from nowhere the size of a comet on Putnam’s crew. Took about three seconds, and pretty much everybody ran for the hills except Putnam. He tried to hold the thing off with his hands. Incinerated instantly, along with a bunch of his team who couldn't run fast enough. And the fire kept pursuing a lot of them, like it was sentient or something. Not fiendfyre. Some unprecedented spell. I personally think it was divine intervention but we really have no idea."

“Anyway after that Jess fell to the ground, and we thought she was dead, and then the rest of the crew went pretty berserk too, all rules of engagement out the window. Everything gets a little fuzzy there but everybody tells me that Lev and I beelined for Jess’s body and dragged her back to the shelter and tried to revive her."

“She was dead, no heartbeat. Can’t really describe what we did but we brought her back. Later my mom told me that the best healers are people who love you, or, that the spells we wove didn’t have to be the most sophisticated if we were willing to give her some of our souls. Well, Jess came back soon enough and she woke up the next day, and ever since our telepathy has been the next best thing to infallible."

“It was hard to get precise counts, but we know we lost twelve that day, and killed over a hundred. Zero prisoners on either side. Jess’s mom was sort of a leader, and really well-liked, and Darren’s parents, Jordan and Liz Loew, well…they acted quickly. Got everyone on board with going on the offensive. The two of them leaned on their contacts in the special forces and they got a unit deployed for operations in Central America, Southeast Asia. Rumor is they got a contingent of vampires in on it too, and a few of the vampire elders, who are the next best thing to Gods if you’re taking out a complex. We got word that they killed quite a few civilians in the process of looking for Putnam’s horcrux, or horcruxes for that matter, we have no idea, and supporters. And we don’t know what price the vampires asked, but the Loews paid it. Jordan came back, alone, months later, to one of our weekend retreats, completely mum on the subject. The adults discussed it and asked him to leave. I haven’t seen him since, and we haven’t been attacked since."

“That sounds horrible, Sarah," Hermione said. “I’m so sorry. And I’m sorry for this next question too, but I think I need to ask it. After the battle over Harry’s house, people are wary of Jess, but I like her. She’s a great teacher. But Lev scares me. Look, I know Ron can be a bit of an ass. But for a second there yesterday I actually feared for his life. Are they sane? Can I trust them?"

This was an altogether more difficult question. I paused and thought it over.

“For all three of us," I said, “I’d lean towards 'no' on sane and 'yes' on trustworthy. As I said, I don’t remember rescuing Jess very well, but I killed a woman en route, at hideously close distance, and I think the medical term for what I’ve been experiencing since is PTSD-induced flashbacks. And Jess and Lev – for the first year after the attack, when they couldn’t sleep, they liked to apparate to city slums, with one of them posing as an easy victim and the other lurking in the shadows to see who would take the bait." "

“But," I said, “Hermione, I am stake-my-life sure of their personal loyalty to me, and now that we’ve sworn to Harry, to him as well. We’ve really been through it together. We’re not good for everything, but if you need coordinated violence, a distraction or something, we’re world-class, and we’re yours."

"Thank you." We had reached the house.

“Where are you going next year?" I asked.

“I can’t say."

“Ok. Is there anything you need from us?"

“I can’t think of anything yet."

"Is there any chance I can convince you to leave Ron and take me or Jess instead?"

"No, I'm sorry. It has to be the three of us. That's how Dumbledore wanted it."

Ok. I understand. We'll be at Hogwarts, be in touch if you need something."

"Thank you, I will."

We hugged and parted ways.

The next night, as Kingsley’s Patronus interrupted the wedding and Death Eaters stormed the place, Hermione grabbed her friends and bailed. The girl moved nearly as quickly as I did, so there was no need to break character to cover their exit. We had been in disguises anyway, so we just sat and kept watch, finishing off untouched entrées as Death Eaters came and went, blathering on about some fugitive.

After that there wasn’t much to do at the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley fretted that the three were gone, but everyone else seemed to have known it was coming. We packed up our belongings and headed back to our camp that night.

The next morning at breakfast, we were quite a hit. Lupin had traveled the distance the day after our first lesson with the kids and given everyone a general impression of what was happening, but they wanted the details. With everyone gathered at the communal table in our main hall, Jess stood up and recounted. Younger kids applauded. 

Afterwards we discussed some of the situation’s more delicate particulars with a small group, us three seated at the table and the adults standing around us. It came out that Voldermort and his two subordinates had held off ten of our crew when they'd come to reinforce us, before they'd disappeared. My parents were pretty shaken by the experience; each had a hand on my shoulder as Nate Miller asked us what we thought the three kids were up to.

“They’ve got some mission they won’t tell us about," I said. “We think they’re going after Voldemort’s horcruxes. They departed the wedding like they had previously discussed exit strategy."

“And you don’t think you could track them?" Ari Stadler, Lev’s dad, asked.

Lev answered. “We probably could but we don’t want to. They’ve got some work, they don’t want to tell us about it, and I think we're in like, prophecy territory. You should have seen Harry fend off Voldermort. It was freaking awesome."

“In the biblical sense," Jess appended. "And besides, if they don’t want Lupin or Arthur, they must have some reason to travel light."

“So," my dad said, “that leaves us in a tricky spot. If you can’t track Potter directly, how can you best be of use next year?"

“I’ve been thinking about that," Lev said. “Harry’s ex-girlfriend is going back to Hogwarts. If he tries to get in touch with anyone, it’s probably going to be her. Plus, you think the Death Eaters are going to be active next year in the school itself right? I say we stick to the original plan and go to Hogwarts. We’ve already got the Parkinson relative confounded. I think we can be pretty useful there."

Lev was deliberately underselling the case. The moment the wedding hubbub had died, we had conferenced and agreed this was best; Jess was dead set on it. “Anything to be with the Death Eaters again,” she had said. “Oh what I’m going to do to them."

Nate and Lev’s mom nodded immediately. Nate chimed in, “I agree with your reasoning, and we would indeed benefit from an undercover group there. Do you feel ready?"

“Before I answer that,” I said, “I have a couple questions. Did you put us deliberately into harm’s way hoping they’d trigger a war by shooting at me?”

The adults shared an uneasy look -- except for my mom, who glared at Nate.

“We honestly didn’t think Voldermort would attack last week,” Nate said. “I don’t think any of us understood, before you came back, just how FUBAR the situation is. I mean from what you say, the Order has no idea what they’re doing. I’m guessing that we underestimated just how much Dumbledore held the whole thing together. So, no, we didn’t see this coming, and we didn’t do it deliberately.”

“But you knew that if something _did_ happen, you’d have a pretext for involvement?”

“Not a pretext,” Lev’s mother said. “Not to me, anyway. If anyone shoots at my kids we’re gonna have something to say about it.”

“Look, Sarah,” Nate said. “We knew it was a risk, and also an opportunity. From the sounds of it, you three were more than ready. And now we’re asking, are you ready to infiltrate Hogwarts? If not, that’s fine, we just need to know.”

“It depends on Voldermort. If he’s at school, none of us – and in my opinion, no one in this camp – is a match. But the rest of his subordinates, mostly they’ve been underwhelming. We could handle them if it came to."

“It doesn’t really matter," Lev said. “We swore to protect Harry. We don’t know how best to do that yet. But getting close to his loved ones is pretty good until we know more."

No one spoke for a moment.

“As to Voldemort’s next move," my mom said, “we can be pretty sure it won’t be something as overt as taking over at the school. As far as we can tell, he has no interest in the day to day management of an institution. Dumbledore shared with us that Voldemort does love Hogwarts like nowhere else, and he may return. He’s such an enigma. I don’t know guys. This makes me uncomfortable."

We let the conversation wear on in that vein for a while, but eventually the three of us stopped speaking and waited for the pro-Hogwarts camp to persuade the holdouts. Jess had no one to speak for her and at 18, was essentially treated as an equal; Lev’s mom seemed to have the upper-hand on his dad, and once it was clear that the two of them were going, my parents looked at each other and sighed. We had been training cooperatively for just such an occasion since we were children. If the two of them were going, so was I. That was that. The last compromise my mother wrestled from us was to spend at least one more month training seriously on defense, escape and healing. All of us agreed.

The next four weeks were grueling. Lev had to start operating without veils, relying on brute firepower against rotating teams of adults. They gave Jess complex, ambiguous situations to navigate, like rescuing hostages in silence with minimal losses and no offensive magic permitted. And my dad started testing just how much power I could focus on one spot, one day trying to direct enough wind to knock a tree down, another moving boulders.

The answer, at least in my case, was a lot. Fully charged up, I could get enough power in one place to be about two orders of magnitude more powerful than a normal human my size. At that point we worked on sustaining a slightly lower intensity of effort for longer periods. And if my dad could summon up maybe twice as much physical force for the same period, it didn’t really matter; both of us were way past the threshold to kill a person with our hands, and I was faster. Lev and Jess reported similar progress.

Before the summer ended, I took Lev’s parents aside and asked if there was any possibility of leaving him home. His dad said that he had some concerns, but the truth was that the three of us, as a unit, were elite now in a way that we just weren’t if they separated us out; and so they thought the safest option was to keep us together. And besides, his mom added, Lev wanted to go, and if they had said no, they weren’t sure what he’d do; at least this way, I’d be there to keep an eye on him. On the last night of August, I told Nate quietly that if anything happened to Lev, I’d hold him personally responsible. He nodded and told me that that was exactly why he wanted the three of us to stick together.

On September 1st, we made our way to the Hogwarts express. Platform 9¾ seemed divided between two distinct groups: one in green robes and their parents, looking celebratory or at the very least smug, and another in all sorts of colors, casting scared glances at the green group. So Voldemort’s crew, or those who wanted to be, and everybody else.

Pretty soon, we saw Ginny Weasley accompanied by her entire family. Ginny almost made a move of recognition, but Arthur stood directly in her way before she could do so. If we were going to try to pass as potential Voldemort allies, an overt greeting from a Harry-Potter-known-accomplice wouldn’t be too helpful. She got the hint soon enough and joined a gaggle of people congregating around a tall, sort of pudgy kid who looked grim.

Following the whistle, the three of us moved inside and piled into the first empty car we could find. We were in our streetclothes, Lev in jeans and a hoodie, Jess in a tanktop. I guess we didn’t look too threatening, because soon enough we were joined by some nervous children. We grabbed the window seats but otherwise didn’t interact with them. Jess and Lev watched the countryside pass in silence while I knitted.

A few hours passed before a mean-looking kid with gelled blonde hair came by, slid the door open and sneered, “all right, brats, get your robes on, we’re nearly there."

“We haven’t got any robes," Jess said conversationally, turning to look at him.

“What? Who the hell are you?"

“Jess. My friends, Lev and Sarah. We’re 7th years. Transfers. You?"

“Draco Malfoy. And how come you haven’t gotten any robes? Do they go to school naked where you come from?"

“No, we go in pants and shirts like normal humans,” Lev said, “and you actually look like a total ponce in your little robe, Draco Malfoy."

“Ooh, ‘ponce,’ nice,” Jess said.

“Well we’re in England now, chap.”

“Do you. Do you …" Draco stammered. “Do you know who I am?"

“Are you still here?” Jess asked. She stood up, and as Draco processed her size advantage, build, and demeanor, she took a quick step towards him and pulled into a boxer’s stance as though about to strike. Draco flinched and fell backwards out of the cabin, at which point Jess shut the door on him and sat down again.

“Dudes,” I said, “let’s try to keep our enemy-making to a minimum at least on our first day, all right?”

“Yes m-o-o-o-m,” Lev said, rolling his eyes. Jess laughed and turned her attention to the younger kids, who had put as much distance as they could between her and themselves.

“Hey sorry about that,” she said, “I didn’t mean anything by it. You really should put on your robes though, I think I see the castle already."

Once we disembarked, I saw that Lev and Jess might have made a not-terrible call, or lucked into one. Even in all the hubbub, the power structures were obvious. A group of adolescents in green robes filed ahead of everyone else and into thestral-drawn carriages. Draco held back, responsible for ushering the little ones off the train, a task at which he was a prick. Jess waved at him at one point, as we filed into the mass of upper-grade students in miscellaneous robes, and he paled, looking away.

No one would talk to us. People were sorting into cliques, and most looked muted. Professors were coming down from the entrance-way to escort students into school. We briefly saw Hagrid, but he made no gesture of acknowledgment.

The castle itself was opulent and foreboding from the outside, but I quite liked how it looked in the late afternoon sunlight. I took a moment to survey the grounds. They were huge. We’d have all the room in the world we needed to train, to explore, to just be by ourselves. This could be lovely.

A nasty looking adult started yelling something about how we needed to move it, and soon enough we were escorted into a giant dining hall. This was a moment of tricky etiquette, but I flagged down a professor.

“Excuse me ma’am?"

“Yes young lady?" she replied before fully taking us in. When she did, she gave a small nod.

“Ah yes. You three must be the Americans. As to where to sit, you can join the first years until the sorting," she said, pointing to a table with the smallest children.

She leaned forward and spoke quietly.

“Moony gives his regards."

Jess smiled.

“Thank you,” I replied. “Are you Minerva McGonagall?"

“Indeed. Mr. Stadler and Ms. Lahiri, I know your parents by reputation, and Ms. Smith, I had the honor of meeting yours many times. Now run along.”

I relaxed. My parents had said that though we had allies inside, it was best to let them take the lead on establishing contact. This one had. She looked like a tough customer too; everyone, green-robes or otherwise, gave her a fair berth as she walked to the long table of teachers, taking a seat directly left of center.

To her right sat an unusual looking man with a sheet of black hair and a scowl. He was watching the arriving students as if the entire proceeding was distasteful. As everyone took their seats, he stood up and lifted his hands. There was silence instantly.

“Greetings, students, new and old. I am your headmaster, Severus Snape. Welcome to Hogwarts …" at which point he started droning on about the value of wizard education and pure blood and I tuned out. To my left, Lev was scanning the windows and doors, while Jess just sat slouched, looking bored.

[Yo, is that the guy who killed Dumbledore?]

[I think so.]

[I think he tried to kill me over the summer.]

[Really?]

[Yeah I can’t be sure, but I think he shot some purple light at me. It was fast, didn’t get a clear look at his face but I think so.]

[Huh.]

After a while the man paused to take a breath, and began again.

“We now come to the Sorting. The Hat requested to perform a song for you all this year. However I have chosen to dispense with that tedious ritual. Professor McGonagall will read the names of all new students. Come and put on the hat, and go off to your table."

Unnoticed to me, a creaking old man, the same one who had rudely ushered us into the school, had started walking from some unknown location behind Snape with a tattered old hat in his hand. He places it on a small platform in front of the teachers’ table, then slinked back into the shadows.

McGonagall called out: “Allen, Ernest!” A small boy went up to the hat, and looked at it questioningly."

‘Put it on," Mr. Allen,” McGonagall said. The boy gulped and did. A few seconds later, the hat itself yelled out: “Hufflepuff!" at which point a table started cheering. Taking this as his cue, the boy went to sit with them.

[That easy huh?] Jess asked.

[Were you expecting a trial by fire?]

[More like hoping. Can we game it?]

[Lupin seemed to think not. But we’ll see when we get up there.]

Eventually, “Lahiri, Sarah!" and I walked over. There were general murmurs, maybe because of my age, maybe because I was still in jeans. Professor Snape rose.

“Ah yes, I forgot to mention. We have three American transfer students, seventh years. Seeing as they did not see fit to show up in proper attire…when you are sorted, your heads of House will provide you with robes. I trust that students will be nothing but courteous to them."

I got to the hat and put it on. 

“Ravenclaw!" it shouted, which, from what I knew, was not surprising. I took a seat with them and made brief introductions.

Pretty soon, “Smith, Jessica!" and she was in Gryffindor in even less time, giving high fives the moment she sat down to anyone and everyone. Then, “Stadler, Lev!" and he sauntered over and put on the hat.

“Slytherin!" it screamed. The green table cheered as Lev walked over, grinning, to sit among them.

“I thought he was with you!" someone at my table whispered.

“He is."

“Then why is he with Slytherin?"

“How would I know? Also I’m sorry, what’s your name?"

I’m Padma. Slytherin’s bad news, that’s You-Know-Who’s house!"

“I don’t know what to tell you, Padma," I said, shrugging.

Pretty soon the ritual was over, and our plates filled. I met a lot of new folks, most of whom struck me as soft. Jess was off to the races, immediately circling her table and introducing herself to everyone after finishing her first course. The Gryffindors looked like good kids. Some of the older ones looked a little rough and tumble, like the Weasley twins. She was going to do fine. Lev was telling a story to a small group, and they were laughing at the right moments. Lev was also going to do fine. I noticed Draco eating quietly, somewhat apart, flanked by two large boys.

Rather quickly, Snape clapped his hands twice and said, “finish up. It is time to retire. Classes begin tomorrow."

Our scraps disappeared, and I moved with my house upstairs. I was exhausted. The whole day had been stressful. I was in a room with three other seventh year girls, Padma and two others, Alanah and Cassie, and out cold in minutes. The next morning I woke up just before dawn, veiled myself, walked to the window, broadcast an alarm-clock dream to the two, and jumped out, my first real exploration underway.

**Chapter 8**

The first few weeks at Hogwarts passed without incident. The three of us had been given second-hand robes and books, but we quickly had everything mended and enchanted to look new. I got along with the girls in my room fine. Ravenclaw was a pretty introverted bunch, which suited me perfectly, because exploring Hogwarts and the grounds was the most fun game I had ever played.

On one level, I simply could not believe the level of magic invested in the space. The three of us would go down hallways at random, veiled and floating slightly off the ground, and find ourselves completely unable to retrace our steps back. Eventually we started leaving magical traces but the school seemed to regurgitate them, and they would stop working the moment they left our field of vision. There was a core of the school that was an easy grid, with the dining hall, classrooms and teachers’ offices in logical array. Beyond that, we concluded, the school was simply un-mappable. When we got too lost, we would make our way to the nearest window and fly out to get our bearings.

One eminently mappable feature of the castle was its defense system. Atop four wings were turrets with clear views of the surrounding land. One evening Jess extended her senses into the stone and reported that there seemed to be extremely powerful defense spells simply awaiting activation. From that point on, we spent a few hours each week learning as much as we could about those spells, and whenever possible, weaving in a trigger or initiation that only we knew, or augmenting them to include defenses against more modern weaponry.

Jess became our contact person with McGonagall, who thought her own office was pretty safe from surveillance. Jess would slip in veiled, and the two of them would have tea and discuss the building’s capabilities. Sometimes, she said, they would talk about Mad-Eye, or Jess’s parents, or the old days.

Generally, classes were pretty neatly divided into those aimed at teaching and those pushing Death Eater ideology. I quite enjoyed the former. Slughorn and McGonagall were brilliant. Herbology was a lot of working with our hands, and Care of Magical Creatures was a good excuse to explore the forest. We were already spending most of our evenings there, practicing, but with Hagrid there, we saw some of its inhabitants: a unicorn, the Centaurs, spiders the size of cars.

The Death Eater classes were tedious. Our crew had told us about the Carrows, and said that both would have been executed for war crimes in the 80s if they had been American, but mostly they just seemed like little, mean-spirited people with too much authority. Muggle Studies was a long diatribe from Alecto about how non-magic people were a bunch of monkeys or whatever. Dark Arts was Amycus’s opportunity to drone on about a particular subset of violent curses that my crew generally considered slow and overly energy-intensive. He also used that class as an opportunity to further expound on the virtues of pure-blooded wizards.

It was in Dark Arts, of all places, that we saw the first salvo between Voldermort’s crew and the Order. It was, for our team, an inauspicious start. I was reading a book under a mirage, like usual, when Neville Longbottom suddenly exclaimed: “and how much pure blood have you got, Amycus?"

The class took in a collective breath as Amycus paused to regard the outburst.

“Longbottom, is it?"

“Yeah. You might have known my parents."

“I can’t say I did. But you are to address me as sir, or Professor, Longbottom."

“Yeah? You think you’re a real professor just because Vol –"

“Cruciatus!" Amycus shrieked, his wand coming out way too fast for Neville. The kid screamed, then slumped into his chair, panting.

“Mr. Crabbe if you would be so kind as to restrain Mr. Longbottom, so he can learn this lesson properly," Amycus said, gesturing to the Malfoy flunkie with the lighter hair. Crabbe got up out of his seat and grabbed Neville’s wand arm, twisted it behind his back, and put his other hand in Neville’s hair, pulling Neville’s head upright to face Amycus.

“Now Mr. Longbottom, I hope you have learned something today about respect for your teachers. I expect we will not have to review this particular lesson again. In regards to your question, I myself am a multi-generation pure-blood wizard."

“Like that matters!" Neville gasped. “You’re dirt, Amycus–"

The results were predictable; Amycus tortured him a few more times, admonishing him to respect his elders, until Neville could hardly speak. My Ravenclaw peers watched in horror; Slytherin looked pleased, although also bored. Lev and Jess looked on with contempt. Still, it was nice to see, on his way out, his crew coalesce around him in support. They gave him words of encouragement and called him brave. I walked away with Ravenclaw.

Our first true brush with danger came a few days later. I learned about it when Lev found Jess and me in the library. He was shook up.

“Dude. What happened?"

“Um. I got in a fight with Malfoy. About something stupid. Like he started it but I provoked him. Snape found us. And then like…can I just show you?"

“Sure. You ok? We’re not going to enter your mind and have you go nuts right?"

“No I’m fine."

He took a few deep breaths.

“Ok. I’m ready."

The three of us reached out our hands to each other and entered Lev’s memory.

**Chapter 9**

Three somewhat translucent avatars of ourselves were now standing in the corridor leading to the Slytherin common room. Slytherin was gathered in a circle and cheering. The three of us walked through their bodies to see what they were looking at. Malfoy and Lev were in the middle of the circle. Malfoy was out cold on the ground with a pair of nasty abrasions on his chin and his right wrist. Lev was receiving high fives and apparently reenacting the fight for everyone.

I cocked an eyebrow at avatar-Lev. He shrugged in a what-was-I-supposed-to-do gesture. Jess laughed.

The hallway suddenly became dead quiet. The circle cleared for Snape. He looked at Lev and Malfoy and said nothing.

“Uh-oh," past-Lev said.

“Nice defense, champ," Jess whispered.

“Stadler. Explain," Snape said.

“Um…Sir, well, Draco and I were exchanging words, and he drew his wand on me when my back was turned and fired, but he didn’t hit me because it wasn’t really me he was aiming at, it was a mirage, and then I defended myself. I’m sorry I didn’t get a teacher’s help. The whole thing happened really fast. I didn’t use any magic on him, just my hands."

Snape reacted impassively to this. Slytherin held its breath. Snape flicked his wrist at Malfoy, who woke with a start and looked around wildly.

‘Off you go, Draco. Madame Pomfrey will see to you. Stadler. To my office. The rest of you. Get out of my sight."

Slytherin scrammed. Lev followed Snape to his office. The three of us followed as well.

“Did it ever occur to you," I asked, “to broadcast for help? You see how Snape could be using this as a pretext to isolate you, break your mind and find out everything about us? And you didn’t broadcast out a distress signal?"

“Yeah, it occurred to me. I probably should have. I guess I thought I could escape if it came to an overt attack."

“Dude. This is the _man who killed Dumbledore._ Look at you. You’re putting the entire operation at risk, or you did, because you acted like a total asshole with the first random kid dumb enough to pick a fight with you."

“Or," Jess added, “more to the point, because you were vain enough to stick around after you decked him."

Lev said nothing. He looked at his feet. We got to the Gargoyle in front of the headmaster’s office. It opened for the two of them and we followed them in.

Lev took a seat opposite Snape in a simple chair. Snape took his wand out and placed it on the table in between the two of them. Lev, idiot though he might be, recognized truce protocol, and did the same.

“Whoa," Jess said.

“I knew your grandparents, you know."

“Oh?"

“Yes. How has Lucas been?"

“Fine, thanks for asking. He lives in Australia now."

“Good, good."

Then, Snape surprised me further by asking Lev some rather straightforward questions about how he was enjoying his time at Hogwarts. Lev told him about his classes, that charms and transfiguration were much too easy but that potions was extremely challenging because we had so little experience with it, to which Snape walked to a bookshelf and pulled down an extremely tattered copy of Advanced Potions Making, which he said he had annotated himself as a student, and offered to lend to Lev for the year. Lev gratefully accepted.

Eventually the conversation turned to events in Britain. Snape asked Lev what he thought of things here.

“Things seem good," Lev said. "I’m not sure why Volder –"

“STOP!" Snape shouted, standing up out of his seat. “Have you any idea what you’ve done?”

“No, Sir, I’m sorry, what have I done wrong?"

“Do _not_ utter the Dark Lord’s name. Under any circumstances. It is profoundly disrespectful, Stadler. And, as it pertains to your particular welfare, the name has been tabooed, as only known Harry Potter supporters are likely to speak it. Its utterance will summon Death Eaters to the spot immediately. I trust that you’ll be more careful."

“Yes Sir, I’m sorry. I didn’t know."

“Few do. But I suppose an American would not know that the name is essentially never said in Britain, and has not been for decades. Now, you were saying."

Lev finished his thought, which was that he was surprised that the "Dark Lord" did not wish to be a more visible public presence in order to build a coalition. Snape didn't comment on this. The conversation moved naturally on to other topics, including Malfoy, whom Snape suggested Lev be nicer to on account of his truly brutal past year. Lev said he would be. After perhaps 45 minutes, Snape dismissed Lev. There was no mention of punishment. The fight itself had hardly been discussed at all.

Lev walked out of the office. His avatar disappeared. The two of us followed suit. We came to in the library, still holding hands and sitting at the table. Perhaps three minutes had passed.

No one said anything for a while.

I was thinking about what Snape had said about Lucas. Snape knew about us, about our allegiance. He seemed like a smart man. It was unlikely that he hadn’t worked the pieces out. And yet, here we were, safe. Either he was planning a more subtle attack, or there was more to the story there. I made a note to mention it to our folks the next time we saw them.

“I can’t believe it," Jess said.

“That I didn’t get in trouble?" Lev asked.

[No. That they’ve tabbooed the name. I guess we’ll call him something else from now on. Tom? Tom. Anyway, it’s like they _want_ to give us the world’s greatest bait. So we can basically summon Death Eaters to wherever we are. Whenever we want. So we could have like, one person say the name, and the other two people waiting above and then shoot whoever shows up.]

It alarmed me that that was Jess’s first thought.

[You guys want to try it?]

I shook my head.

“I”m sorry guys, but not with you two. Lev, my man, you nearly screwed the pooch here, and over nothing. You can’t let every dipshit get a rise out of you. And Jess, you know I love you, and you’ve been better since we got here. But It was just a few months ago that you were at the point of breakdown again. Best thing we can do is tell the crew."

Neither said anything.

[Fine] Jess sent. [Whatever. But what I really think we should do is tell Jordan Loew.]

[That’s not crazy. But we have no idea how to contact him. Also, the crew banished him for a reason. The mass murder thing.]

[I know. But I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. Lev and I have been talking about it. We want to talk to him. Get his side of the story. I feel like we should hear it from him directly.]

[I…I could be convinced. But let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. Also, not sure if we should risk leaving the castle to tell our parents just yet. Let’s see what comes. Also, can we go to dinner? Living your memory was stressful Lev.]

[Yeah, it was stressful being there too.]

“I’m sorry I called you an asshole," I said as we packed up our books.

“It’s ok. I was being one. I’m gonna say sorry to Draco."

“Well," I said, “it’s a start."

**Chapter 10**

As fate would have it, Hogwarts gave Jess and Lev exactly what they needed about two weeks later. All it took was Neville’s and Ginny’s coming about a hair’s width from being thrown to the wolves.

Word about what happened to Neville spread pretty quick, and the Gryffindors didn’t like it one bit. Seemingly overnight, we started seeing graffiti around the walls proclaiming “Dumbledores Army” or “long live Potter” or whatnot. The Death Eaters themselves still inspired a lot of fear, and no one was challenging them directly. We were pretty sure who was behind this – Jess reported that within Gryffindor, Neville was the symbolic leader, Ginny was the brains of the operation, a kid named Seamus was the risk-taking one, and Colin and Dennis Creevey were the lookouts. About a week after Lev’s great adventure with Snape, we were discussing the issue in the Forest, having just played a Hide and Seek simulation, rules being you could neither touch the ground nor fly, so only jumping between trees, which Jess had won, first to five wins.

“They’ve got some good ideas," Jess said, as we stopped to drink from a brook, “most of which they can’t really put into operation, but they’re being sloppy. They’re going to get caught sooner or later."

“What do you mean?" Lev said.

“Well partly I’m not sure they don’t want to be caught. Neville keeps talking about the way Harry stood up to some woman named Umbridge a few years ago. He says it inspired people, and someone has to be seen standing up. As to the rest of them, well, none of their skills are all there. Ginny knows some veils from watching us over the summer, but she can’t maintain the veil and do anything else, and she’s trying to teach her crew, but they’re not picking it up so well. I can still see Seamus’s hair every time they practice in the common room, and Neville stomps around like a troll."

“Have they asked you for help?" I asked.

“Yes, actually. Ginny came up to me one day in the common room but I was pretty rude. I think I said, "fuck off, amateur." None of them that heard it have talked to me since… but you know I apologized to Ginny later, explained about our alibi, and she was cool. But they’re going to get in real trouble. First of all they practice in the common room sometimes and they’re, like, totally not worried about spies. Oh yo also they go somewhere I don’t know to practice, and I don’t think it’s out here. Yeah so they seem to think the worst thing that could happen would be getting tortured. Like Tom wouldn’t kill their moms. It’s crazy."

“This is a pickle," Lev said. We were sitting cross-legged, facing each other, mending Lev’s bruised frame. On the last round Jess had caught Lev in a mid-air swing and essentially sledge-hammered him into the ground. He had broken a few ribs on impact.

“Any ideas?" Jess asked.

“Well," I said, “what’s most important?"

“Probably we need to protect Ginny," Lev said. “If she goes down, Harry could come back, or Tom might kidnap her or something. I’m assuming the three of them are still alive because we haven’t heard anything. We protect Ginny, we keep them moving, we keep their mission-a-go."

“Agreed," I said. “But Jess was probably right not to get involved. Too many moving parts. One of them gets tortured and mind-fucked, we don’t want to be seen anywhere near the scene of anything."

“Yeah."

“So what’s the play?"

“Can we tail them?"

“Yes," Jess said. “Easily."

“That’s going to eat into our practice time."

“I know. Why don’t we start with just Ginny. You know what, Ginny knows we’re allies, right? Why don’t I let her in on it tonight. Nobody else for now."

“I agree," Lev said.

“Me too," I said.

“All right," Jess said. “We’re a-go. You guys want to play again?"

“Absolutely," Lev said, getting to his feet. “Can we try in the lake? I want to practice the warming and breathing spells."

“Oh god, could you play any more to my strengths."

“Yeah? You want to try 2 on 1?" Jess taunted.

“Bring it you inept bitches."

*****

Jess’s prediction came true five days later when Ginny and Neville were dragged from bed at 3 in the morning by the Carrows. Fortunately, Jess had taught Ginny a rudimentary telepathy spell over the summer, and though she couldn’t communicate anything complex, [HELP] she could get within a day of practicing. Well [HELP] came, Jess woke up, she woke the two of us, and we were moving.

[Where?]

[One of the Carrow offices. They’re adjacent. Don’t know the full story. I can overpower the two of them alone but let’s take this seriously just in case.]

[I’ll bring the rifle!]

[Oh good if we have to wage an insurgency it’ll be great to have you.]

[I’m here.]

[Me too.]

[Hey Lev.]

[Hey buddy.]

[You beat the Carrows slightly. They’re maybe a corridor away.]

[Tom. Tommy Boy. We should call him Chris Farley.]

[Dude. Focus.]

[Chris is a funny guy, Sarah.]

Soon enough, Neville and Ginny came, looking bleary-eyed and scared in their PJs – which for Neville was just a pair of boxers – followed by the Carrows in their full robes, holding their wands. Alecto opened the door to her office, and the three of us slipped in.

There we were greeted by a surprise: five Slytherins, all dudes, all big. They were all fully dressed, and looking eager. The Carrows moved behind their desk, but not before shoving the two kids into the middle of the room. It wasn’t a huge office, and the Slytherins were crowding by the door. There was a real chance that someone was going to run into us. On my mental map, I saw Jess move behind the Carrows, a pistol in each hand. She’d have the drop. Lev and I needed to be ready for the Slytherins, just in case.

[Float up?] he suggested.

[You got it. I’ll take left wing.]

[Also did we tell Ginny we’re here?]

[I told her we’d be here] Jess said. [I think she got it. I’m not risking communication with her now. She’s too inexperienced, she might give us away.]

[All right. Let’s see what happens.]

The Carrows were savoring the moment. “So," Amycus said after a minute. “You two think you’re really funny. Long Live Potter on the walls, like he’s even alive anymore. And you thought no one would know?"

“I don’t know what you’re talking about," Neville said. Amycus walked around his desk, stood face to face with Neville and punched him in the stomach. Neville bent forward, hands over his solar plexus. Amycus returned to his desk.

“Nobody asked you to talk boy. But as a matter of fact, we have a witness. Mr. Goyle, would you please tell these two what you saw the other day?"

“Right," Goyle said. “It was you two, and two kids I don’t know. Younger, siblings or something. Anyway I definitely saw you two. I’d just left dinner early, and I heard you two. I looked around a corner, and there you were, both of you, writing something. I stayed for a bit and then turned around and told these two, and now we’re here innit?"

He smiled.

“Well," Alecto said. “Caught red-handed. What seems like the appropriate punishment?"

“Something to really make them remember," Amycus leered.

Boy, I thought, they were really playing up the creepy angle.

[This is boring] Jess sent. [Why are they drawing it out?]

[Uh…] Lev sent. [I think they’re trying to inspire fear or something. Or show the Slytherins something?]

[Quiet you two, let’s be ready to move.]

[Girl relax, I’ve got the drop on the Carrows. They do something and I’ll take both out.]

[And all the Slytherins?]

[You two could handle them.]

[The seven bodies might be more of a challenge.]

[Transfigure them into vases or something.]

[Guys. People would realize they were missing. Play it cool, we’re trying non-lethal tactics at first.]

[Fine…]

While we were chatting, Amycus had punched Neville a few more times and kicked him, shouting something about disrespect. Nothing had happened to Ginny which worried me. Neville was bleeding on the floor, but after a few more blows, Alecto put her hand on her brother's shoulder to halt him.

“Amycus, I’ve had an idea," she said. “I've read that current best practice in pedagogy is to let students teach one another the material. It is supposed to create deeper learning for both parties. How about we let our esteemed pupils here lead the parade for a moment?" she asked, gesturing at the Slytherins. 

"Excellent, I'll give it a go," Crabe said, advancing towards Ginny.

[Intervention time] Jess sent. [Kid’s a fucking psychopath.]

[All right] I sent. [Jess, get the Carrows, Lev and I will blanket the Slytherins.]

[Fair enough] Jess sent as she holstered the guns and raised her hands at the Carrows. Lev and I did the same at the Slytherins. All five of them crumpled to the ground, completely unprepared. Unfortunately we did so slightly before Jess set her spells into motion, and though she caught Amycus, Alecto saw her brother go down, dodged to her left and crouched with her wand out. Lev hovered over to directly above her and dropped, landing directly on her shoulders. She hit the ground, rolled onto her back and put her hands in front of her face, but Lev kicked her in the mouth; I heard teeth break, and then Lev waved his hand at her and she went to sleep before she could start screaming.

“Bitch," he said as the veil dissolved. Jess and I followed suit, dissolved our veils and checked on the downed Slytherins. All were out cold. A few were snoring. In a moment we had retrieved Neville's and Ginny's wands from Amycus's desk and returned them to their owners, both of whom quickly clutched each other, Ginny hyperventilating and Neville asking some incoherent question about where we had come from.

“Both of you," Jess said, “Shut up. Now."

“What the bloody hell was that?!" Neville said, pulling away from us towards a window. “And what’s _he_ doing with you?!"

“Neville, Neville," Ginny said. “It’s all right, they’re with us! Please relax."

“And you need to do it now," Jess added. “We’re only about a hundred feet from the Headmaster’s office. I don’t know where he sleeps but we do not need the extra attention. Either quiet down or I’ll put you down."

Neville took that advice to heart, but was still whispering furiously to Ginny and gesticulating at us. She looked at us imploringly.

“What should I tell him?"

“Whatever you want," Lev said. “Cat’s out of the bag I guess. I unveiled so the two of you wouldn’t think you were with ghosts, I thought that would be even worse. Although I can’t say this went ideally. Now we’ve got a lot of big sleeping lunatics to worry about. And you, Neville, you idiot, probably woke half the castle."

Ginny, who had evidently calmed down considerably, said, “I actually don’t think that’s true. This office is pretty sound-proofed. She took Seamus in here one time for talking back. I waited right outside. Couldn’t hear a thing. He said after that he’d been screaming bloody murder. I think we’re ok as long as no one comes in."

“Obviously I took care of that," Lev sneered. “The door is locked and triggered. If that’s the case all we’ve got to worry about is these lumps. I vote we kill them."

“Motion is seconded," Jess said.

“The Slytherins too? Their families would, hello, probably wonder what happened? I can’t think of a better way of drawing attention to the school, and by extension, to us. Also, they didn’t do anything besides tattle. Maybe they would have hurt you two if we hadn’t intervened. But we did. We’re not killing them."

“Fine," Jess said. “The Carrows though? Alecto?"

“Again, with the unwelcome attention to Hogwarts and us. Worst case scenario, we’ll kill them and make it look like the Slytherins did it. But in the meantime let’s brainstorm a bit."

“False memory implants?" Ginny said.

“That’s quite tricky," I said.

“I can do them, actually."

“Really?"

“Yeah. Hermione taught me."

“How good are you?"

"I'm ok, I suppose."

"Ginny, no time for false modesty. Are you confident in your abilities, or not?"

“Yes, I am."

“Have you ever done it in a high-stakes situation?"

“Yes."

“For what it's worth," Levy said, "We’ve got some time to try it out. Ginny can try it on a Slytherin and I can see how well it worked."

“Fine," Jess said. “if it doesn’t work, I vote we just blank all of their minds and let them sort the pieces out."

“That’s our next best alternative," I said. “For now, maybe something like, the two of you got beat up and then went back to your dormitories? Weave naturally from where they were hitting Neville?"

“All right," Ginny said. “Let’s give it a shot."

Ginny rolled Goyle onto his back, put her wand to his head, and whispered something I couldn’t hear. Lev went over and put his fingers on Goyle’s head for a few seconds, and looked at us.

“She’s the real deal, we’re in the clear.”

I was impressed. I also wished Hermione had taught me that before she left, but no matter. Ginny put false memories in the five Slytherins, Lev following to double check and enchanting them to stand. Eventually Ginny did the same to the Carrows, Lev set them upright and removed the bruises from Alecto while setting her teeth, and Ginny looked at us as if awaiting instructions.

Before she could ask, Jess said, “we’ll set a wake up, they’ll all come to about five minutes after, at which point we’ll be gone. But before we go we should get something straight. This was an extremely risky operation for a little stupid graffiti. I’d like to ask you to stop."

“Easy for you to say," Neville spoke up. “Not all of us can come out of nowhere and take out seven people at once. And the three of you, I want to know your story anyway. We’re doing what we can. And if the Death Eaters want us, it doesn’t matter what we do. They’ll get us."

“We might be able to help you there," I said. “Ginny, you want to do lessons like over the summer? This should never happen again, and we might be able to help."

“Yes, I’d love that," she said. “If Jess hadn’t been so rude to me two weeks ago I was going to ask then."

“Yeah…about that," Jess said. “Y’all weak. Someone cracks one of your minds and the whole operation goes down. I’d like to minimize the number of links in the chain. Just the two of you for now. I guess Ginny, you already knew about us, and Neville, welcome to the club. We can go anytime, maybe out to the forest."

“I have a better idea," Ginny said. “There’s a room in the castle we’ve used for lessons before. It’s perfect. I can show you guys tomorrow. Right now I just want to go to sleep."

“Fine," I said. “Let’s go to bed for now. Lev, set the alarm please."

“Aye aye, captain."

“I also want to say that I’m glad we all survived this," I added.

“Ditto," Ginny said. Neville looked at us again with distrust, his arm around Ginny as they walked to the door.

And that was how we found out about the Room of Requirement.

**Chapter 11**

I would have liked to think that I’d seen some impressive magic in my time. A guy in our crew could approach the speed of sound in flight. An ally of ours, old gnarled man from Chile, had once constructed a gigantic castle in a matter of minutes, that the rest of us lived in for a summer, and then taken it down just as quickly at summer’s end. In terms of destructive magic, Jess’s fireball ranked pretty high up there.

But beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Room of Requirement was the most amazing enchantment I had ever seen. It was so perfect, so expertly designed and executed, its scope at once so focused and so encompassing, that I would have never thought it a possibility.

At 10:00 p.m., Lev, Jess and I met Ginny and Neville outside the Ravenclaw common room, and followed them under veils up a few flights of stairs. Their veils needed work, but we made our way to a 7th floor corridor, where Ginny whispered, “it’s here." About five seconds later, a door appeared in the wall, and we stepped into a well-lit room, maybe twenty by twenty feet, with nothing but a few chairs, a table and a chalkboard. Ginny said, “it’s ok, we’re safe here," and the two of them unveiled.

[How do you know?] I sent.

Neville startled; perhaps he hadn’t been expecting to hear a voice in his mind.

“So," he said, “maybe we should explain. The Room of Requirement shows up and gives you basically whatever you ask for. There are some exceptions and we’ll go into that later. But I asked it for a room that only the five of us could enter for right now, and it gave it to us. So nobody else can get in right now."

[No way.]

“Yes way. Try it."

[Ok I want a cheeseburger.]

“Actually food’s one of the things you can’t ask for. Try a physical object."

[Ok how about] but before Lev could finish, there on the table was a military-caliber M24, scope and all.

[Oh my] Jess sent.

 _“That’s_ what you want?” Neville asked.

“Esse," Lev murmured, appearing, as Jess and I followed suit. As he walked over to the table, a bullseye appeared on the far end of the wall. Lev picked up the weapon, loaded and inspected it, and fired.

“Holy shit," he said. “You…you have a room…you have a room that can _give you what you want?_ "

“Yeah," Neville said. “You need to be really specific though. Harry used to use this room to teach us defense against the dark arts a few years ago, but we didn’t think to ask it to prevent enemies from getting in, and we all got caught. Just…be really specific. And try it out a bit."

“No," Lev said. “No one do anything. Just everyone shut up for a minute."

Lev had begun pacing around the room.

“Oh my god, guys. This place. Darren. Come back to me. Please, I miss you, so fucking much, just talk to me."

Nothing happened.

“Maybe we need more power," Jess said. “Let’s all give it a shot."

“I’m sorry," Ginny said. "What?"

“We’re trying to contact the dead," I said. “We’ve been trying for a little while now, with spells we make up, but this room might be the right place. Quiet for a second please."

The three of us moved together to hold hands in a circle. The physical barrier established, we closed our eyes and extended our wills into one another. It seemed natural that Lev would conduct this one, and he selected one of the brief spells we had tried for this before. We sang a small song in silence. After four repetitions we sent our will out, opened our eyes, and waited. Again nothing happened.

“I’m sorry buddy," Jess said. “Not this time."

Lev put his head on her shoulder.

“Let’s do it like Neville said," I suggested. “Let’s try thinking of physical objects."

The room was quickly littered with weapons ranging from the medieval to the cutting edge, and the room had gotten much larger. I asked for a big, comfy couch and one appeared in a far corner. I also noticed three wall-mounted telephones by the door.

“Whoa guys," I said, “let’s take stock for a second, we’re going to drown in stuff."

“This…" Jess said. “This is the greatest thing. This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. We could supply an infinitely large army."

“I don’t know about that," Lev said, “the room probably has a limit somewhere. We just haven’t found it yet. So we all asked for a way to talk to our crew huh?"

“I did," I said.

“Hmm. Well. I can think of someone else I want to talk to."

Another telephone, this one red, appeared next to the first three.

“Liz and Jordan?" I asked.

“As far as I know."

“So what’s first?" Jess asked.

“Let’s call our crew, tell them we’re fine, tell them about the taboo thing," Lev said.

“Ok," I said. “You can if you’d like. All three white phones should work."

“Would you mind," Neville said, a little petulantly, “keeping us in the loop?"

“Yeah," Jess said. “We’re going to call our crew in America. We each asked for a telephone to contact them. We want to give an update, report that we haven’t seen Harry, tell them about the taboo thing."

“That’s great," Neville said, “but can I ask, what precisely did you request to the room?"

“A way to contact my parents," Lev said as he walked towards the phones.

“So, did you ask for a way to contact your parents? Or did you ask for a way to contact your parents that no Death Eater, enemy or even potential enemy could eavesdrop in on?"

“Uh…" Lev trailed off. “The first one."

“Did you not hear me when I said, be very specific?"

“Um, I guess I didn’t think of that," Lev said.

He paused.

“That’s a good idea. I’m sorry dude. I shouldn’t have moved so fast. I just want to talk to them really bad I guess."

As he spoke, a new telephone appeared right next to the original four.

(Make the other three go away, I thought "at" the room, to the extent that I could, and they did).

“Just get used to being enormously particular. I’ve spent a lot of time here, and when in doubt, run something by me," Neville said.

“Will do," Jess said. “We’re sorry if we seemed like we’re stepping on your space. This is all just very new."

“It’s all right," he said. “But I’d like something more than a sorry. I’d like to know who you guys are. Ginny told me a bit this morning. But I think I deserve to hear it from the horse’s mouth."

The three of us exchanged a glance.

“You’re right, Neville," I said, “we don’t know who to trust yet. But you’ve helped us – more than you know, actually – by showing us this room. So for now, how about we explain ourselves while Lev makes the call?"

“That seems fair," Neville said. “And what’s with the red phone?"

“That," Jess said, “you might not want to know, but after we tell you about ourselves, if you still want to, we’ll tell you about that too."

“And afterwards, more lessons?" Ginny asked.

“Sure," Jess said, and I listened as she gave him the cliffnotes version of our crew, our purpose, and our involvement with Harry.

“We got to the Burrow with Ginny," Jess said, finishing up, “and offered them a few lessons in combat stuff, until Harry and co. amscrayed, and then we decided to come to Hogwarts anyway to keep an eye on things. And now we’re talking to you. Any questions?"

“So," Neville trailed off, “A lot, but I’m not sure they’re crucial right now. For starters, though, what kind of combat stuff are we talking here?"

“Well," I said, “that depends. You’ve seen some of what we can do. I’m a decent medic and world-class at making spells up. All of us are relatively skilled at hand to hand or weapons combat. Jess is your girl for sheer firepower, and Lev has skills that would make him a really good thief. You want to make a piece of clothing bulletproof or fireproof, we can do that. So what do you want?"

“Um. I want to know what will help me help Harry the best."

As soon as he said it, a piece of folded paper appeared on the desk where Lev had set the M24 down. Neville walked over to it, read it, and put it in his pocket as he walked back to us, saying nothing.

“Well?" Ginny said.

“Turns out, you can ask the room for advice. It says, protect allies."

“Allow me to reiterate that this is the most awesome place I’ve ever been," Jess said.

“This is great, something we can definitely work with," I said. “Why don’t we set up a game, like the ones we play ourselves. Jess, you be someone Neville and Ginny have to protect. Lev and I will try to tag her, and you try to tag us. Room, make this game awesome please?"

Abruptly, the walls seemed to shift backwards, and the room became so cluttered with broken furniture that it looked nearly impossible to walk. There were junked pianos that you could hide a child in, overturned bookshelves, bed frames piled against walls, a mess of cabinets in disarray. It was perfect.

“Lev!" I called. “You up for a game?"

“Yeah!" he yelled right back. “All right mom we gotta go. Yeah we’re teaching two of their crew something. Yeah, Longbottom and Weasley. Tell Gemma I love her. God I wish I were there when you do the taboo thing…Ok yeah, we will. Love you."

He hung up, and walked over to us.

“Sweet set up. What’s the play?"

“These two protecting slash hiding Jess – we’ll rotate which one of us gets protected each round, we won’t be firing or anything – and the other two of us are trying to get the third. If the protected person gets touched or spelled the attackers win, if the defenders touch or enchant the defenders they win."

“What would be the, ah, difficulty setting these two should play on?"

“Why don’t we start on…Death Eater, i.e. unveiled, loud, saying our spells aloud. And we’ll give them two minutes to find a position, cut down ten seconds every round. Oh, before we start. Neville and Ginny, practice a hot air spell. Something that you’ll know you’ve been hit, but won’t hurt. I go with _vesivus_. Just picture a small jet of hot air coming out. We’ll do the same."

The first round, Neville and Ginny did well, hiding in complete silence beneath a piano until we passed, and then touching our feet. The next round, Jess and I walked much more quietly and started firing spells at random. Ginny countered with a noise-throwing spell which would have fooled me if I hadn’t taught it to her over the summer, but, within the rules of the game, was good enough for Neville to sneak up and tap us on the neck. Third round, Jess and Lev muffled all their sound and started casting around hominid revelum in addition to hot air spells. Ginny got Jess but Lev got me.

The next round Lev and I went with a more complete veil and we both got Jess. The next round, Jess and I combined for a multi-sensory veil and started floating around the room rather than walking, and we got Lev much more quickly. That was the difficulty level at which we stopped and ran repeat rounds, suggesting pointers for how they could veil themselves more effectively, look for clues that a veiled person was moving, and move more quietly. At 1:00 a.m. We called it a day.

“From here on in," Jess said, “we should do this a few times a week. You guys need time to relay some of the stuff to your crew yeah? Please don’t tell them where you learned what you do."

“How about, Mondays Thursdays and Saturdays, 10:00 pm each night?" Ginny suggested.

“That’s good," Lev said. “Excuse us for a moment though. We need to call some old friends."

“I’m still not sold on this," I said. “I think we need to actually discuss it and we didn’t get much of a chance, I hadn’t thought the possibility of calling would so quickly emerge."

“But…" Jess said. “Sarah the phone’s right there."

“And it will be there tomorrow. You guys were pretty out of it when Jordan came back. I listened a little more closely. My parents thought that their civilian casualty count was in the high hundreds or low thousands."

“We deserve to hear it from them though," Jess said. “Let them tell their side of the story."

“You guys, you guys are talking about…" Ginny said, “getting in touch with the Loews you said? Like, Darren’s parents? The one who went on the offensive with the vampires you said?"

“Yep," Lev confirmed.

“And your crew thinks they killed hundreds or thousands of people when going after, whatever they went after?"

“If that’s what they said I believe it," Jess said.

“Why do you want to get in touch exactly?"

“Because they were the real combat specialists," Lev said. “Tom’s out of our league. Snape might be as well. We just want to get some ideas from them. Not saying we’ll commit to anything. Just want to chat."

“If that’s what you want, really all you want, I can be convinced," I said. “Two conditions. First, let’s talk to them tomorrow. We’re exhausted right now, I can’t think clearly. Second, as to whatever we do with them, whether we team up or what, we make that decision with them not here. Just the three of us. For now, we hear them out, maybe meet up if they want, and then decide what to do."

“Done," Lev said.

“Completely fine," Jess said.

“This worries me guys. I don’t want to end up like them."

“Hopefully you won’t have to," Jess said.

With that, we made our way to our respective dormitories. I didn’t sleep very well that night.

**Chapter 12**

And so, three weeks later, on a drizzly November evening, we made our way to Hogsmeade to meet Jordan Loew.

The phone call had been short. He had been extremely surprised to hear from us, but then immediately became guarded. He suggested that we find a place and time to meet. Before Lev could say where we were, he asked if the plan to get three kids to shadow a certain someone had finally been accepted, and if that meant we were at a “preppy, effeminate little boarding school." Lev said yes, and then Jordan said: "November 5th. 8:00 p.m. Get to the village. I’ll be there,” and hung up.

In the ensuing weeks, Lev got propositioned by Zabini and then in short order propositioned a 6th year girl from Hufflepuff. That was going to blow up in his face, but I wasn’t super worried about it. Jess was fooling around with some Gryffindor guy, but the three of us still spent almost every evening together, reading or practicing, so it wasn’t like anything was going to get serious with them either.

We stopped holding back quite so much in class. Potions had started out hard but the basic principles were so similar to chemistry, and apparently only the three of us had ever taken a real chemistry course, that by mid-October we were miles ahead. The same was true in transfiguration. Luckily, revealing that gave Slughorn and McGonagall a reason to put us in a group together, and give each of us slightly different assignments. With Snape’s book in hand, our advantage at potions was growing gigantic. Some of the more dangerous spells written within suggested that 17 year old Severus Snape had been a kindred spirit.

Social life in Hogwarts went on like it must have for a millennium. People went to Quidditch matches. Happily, Draco and Lev reconciled ok. Lev told us he approached him quietly with his hands visible and apologized for humiliating him. Draco accepted it gracefully, that way rich people are good at. They weren’t going to be bosom buddies but things had smoothed over. Nobody thought twice about seeing them sitting together at meals or anything. The Gryffindors had significantly cut back on the graffiti, and as far as I could tell, Ginny, Neville, and their friend Luna were teaching a fairly big crew some combat training. They had adopted our style of practicing multiple skills simultaneously through simulations, as we observed one evening veiled, and were pretty good teachers. A lot of what we were teaching them now was common sense stuff, like never be too far from a weapon, a shield, and the ability to contact an ally, and some spells to facilitate all that, like silent incantation, telepathy, wandless summoning charms, and veils.

We asked them, in the room one evening, to close their eyes and visualize the weapon that felt most right to them. A broadsword clattered to the ground at Neville’s feet, and at Ginny’s, a pair of throwing knives. None of us three knew a lot about bladed combat, but it wasn’t so hard to figure out, and we were spending a few hours a week practicing with them, working on accuracy with Ginny and basic thrusts and parries with Neville.

Some people in our crew were phenomenal with blades, and we were starting to talk about having G+N, as we called them, over to the States for winter break. But what we absolutely could help them with was enchanting and personalizing their weapons, which all three of us were quite good at. A few weeks of work and both had weapons that they could carry around invisibly and next to weightlessly, or, if they didn’t want to carry them, summon with a word. We were, early in the evening on November 5th, just beginning to teach them to make their weapons effective shields as well, to either repel or reflect physical or magical attacks. They weren’t going to have weapons as personalized and versatile as ours anytime soon, but it was a start.

Jordan hadn’t given us any kind of clear signal about what to expect, but at 7:55, we were crouching on the roof of the Three Broomsticks, which we had scouted one evening and determined was a good vantage point and a relatively easy escape. I had my coil in my hand, and Jess and Lev were holding two pistols each; we had divided our attention so that Jess and I were scanning the ground and Lev’s senses were extended to the air. A really powerful, dedicated wizard could still sneak up on us, but our plan was to scatter if anything went wrong.

At 7:59, we heard a faint *pop!* of apparition, followed immediately by an absurdly loud and frightening siren that tore into the docile fabric of the evening. Four death eaters, three men and a woman, came spilling out into the street from the pub we were crouched on, wands out, in a tight square formation. I recognized two of them as people I’d engaged with in July. They were, if memory served, formidable wizards.

“Who’s that trying to come into Hogwarts, ay?” the woman yelled. “Is that you Potter?"

“You’d best come out now," another added, “or we might get the dementors, I’ve heard you’re not too fond of them."

They weren’t moving, though, and were congregating in a lantern-illuminated spot not fifteen feet away from us; the three of us could easily subdue them. But before I could come up with a plan, or any of us could do anything, a few things happened in such quick succession that I had trouble following.

First, the two Death Eaters who had spoken were bereft of their heads, which came rolling down at odd angles. By the time the bodies hit the ground the remaining death eaters suddenly jerked back, like they had been kicked in the face by a large animal. For a glimpse of a second I saw a high-caliber hole in one of their foreheads – and then all four bodies were simply gone, transfigured, I assumed. That last bit was a giveaway that someone from our crew was in the vicinity. A few short beats later, I heard a guttural word in a language I didn’t know, and the siren stopped. From every direction at once came the sound of many windows closing.

[Holy mother of Christ] Jess broadcast.

[That was like 4 seconds] Lev sent. [I know they were unprepared but still. Did you even see him?]

“I know you’re out there," Jordan’s voice wafted up from nowhere. “I’m alone. Let me in to your little chat and let’s coordinate this."

[What the hell] I sent. [Lev, you wanted him here. This one’s on you.]

[Ok, I’ll give it a shot] Lev offered weakly. [Here goes: Jordan. Jordan? CAN YOU HEAR ME?]

[Jesus Christ boy no need to shout. I can sense that you’re near– though, nice work, that's about it. Let's get a drink?]

[After that? You don’t think people are going to be, like, wary of someone unknown entering?]

[I don’t care what they think, I want a drink. And besides, let them see me. I’ll be gone by morning. You three should disguise, but no need to lurk around like criminals. Let’s hit the Hog’s Head inn, I like that place. I’m street level, look for the blue shimmer.]

Sure enough, right where four people had just died and disappeared, there was briefly something that looked like a heat mirage, with a tint of sky blue against the darker colors of the street.

[In for a penny, in for a pound] Jess sent. [We’ve come this far.]

And with that, she jumped down to the street, as did Lev and I a second later. The blue shimmer walked forward, and the three of us followed; soon we were at a new pub, one I hadn’t been to. In a low-lit area Jordan unveiled, and we joined him. We had each disguised, and would probably be unrecognizable to anyone but our parents.

“It’s good to see you three again," Jordan said, “even if it is looking like this. Come on, they’ll probably give me my old seat."

He opened the door, and we followed him in.

**Chapter 13**

They did indeed give Jordan the seat he wanted – or, when he walked in, almost no one regarded him, except for a mean-looking man at the bar who raised a tankard in salute, and we made our way back to a far corner round-table where Jordan sat with his back to the wall, eyes on everything.

I took a moment to take stock of him. He was wearing a black knee-length peacoat over a collared shirt and sweater, jeans and black shoes, like a perfectly normal city-dweller in the fall. He had been a good-looking man when we saw him last, but there was something imprecisely vicious about him now. His black hair had thinned considerably in the back, and a close-cut beard didn’t hide a horrible looking scar on his right cheek that ran down to his neck. As we sat, he called out to the bartender, who brought over four shots of whiskey and four beers and said nothing.

“They don’t card much here. Anyway, to your health, and to this meeting," Jordan said, raising his whiskey, which the three of us met.

“As a prerequisite for business," he said, and put his hands on a wooden banister to his right and murmured something. We were immediately enveloped in a sound bubble that blocked off the entire pub, and I could hear Jordan’s coat rustling with startling clarity.

“Best thing about this place, anti-eavesdropping spells built into the booths. Gotta know someone to get the password to activate them. Some of the best I’ve ever encountered. Safe too. Well, safe now, maybe ten years back a bartender built in a mechanical way to eavesdrop, and a distant acquaintance from Vietnam detected it while he was drinking and killed the bartender in broad daylight. Nobody did a goddamn thing about it is what I heard, dude just walked out and never came back. Anyway. So you’re all at Hogwarts? Harry isn’t here though right?’

“That’s right, I said. “He’s off fighting a certain someone."

“Yeah, but Volder –"

“Stop!" Jess nearly shouted, cutting him off. “There’s a taboo on that name. It draws Death Eaters instantly. We call him Tom.”

“All right, keep your pants on, Tom’s another matter altogether. From what I hear Harry’s not so special."

“He’s fine, and his buddy Hermione is on top of it. We don’t know much more than that – I’m sorry, how the hell have you not heard about the taboo thing?"

“Jessica, this is my longest conversation in months. And, even if I had muttered the name aloud at some point, you think I hang out where Death Eaters can get me? Wait. Hold on. Are you seriously saying that if someone says his name, his subordinates come? Like, on command? Is he a fucking idiot?"

“We can’t tell," Jess said, “but we told our crew. They’re gonna try to start luring them. Try to get information, wipe their memories or something."

“That’s fine but how about: kill all but one, mind control that one, strap a bomb on him and blow up a base. Or, we catch a top lieutenant, have him take us to Tom directly and then we shoot him."

“That…could work too. Yeah, that could work," Lev said. “That’s part of why we got in touch, discuss what we’ve learned, get ideas. But before we do, we’d, well –“

Lev breathed and recited the script we’d worked out.

It’s been a while. We’d like your account of everything from the attack onwards. We heard our parents’ version but we thought that we ought to hear it from you and Liz if she were around. Did she make it, by the way?"

“With the vampires. I’ll get there," he said. “All right. Haven’t told it in a while but you three deserve it. Y’all were there for the attack. You know we went on the offensive, found two fortresses in Guatemala and Papa New Guinea. We had maybe twenty C.I.A. guys with us, ten wizards, ten who knew so much about fighting wizards they might as well have been. We lost five in Guate before we made our first move, they found us, sicked some kind of hunting dog spirits who came in total silence. We retreated and held them off, and it took all of us to apparate the non-wizards out. I went back alone and tried to get around them. Got up to the wall, tried firing a shot at it, rebounded, illuminated me, hounds found me again, barely escaped."

“Did some more recon, spent about a month trying to penetrate the fortress. No dice. So Liz and I talked it over, made a choice. We sent the other fifteen guys home. Contacted the baddest group we knew and we thought would play ball, which was the Mayan Scourge, based out of Bolivia. The two of us approached, all old-world rituals, unarmed, bearing gifts, and met with one of their chieftains. Little guy and remember the vampires live in huts, they look like any other native peoples until they become giant fucking bat nightmares but this was just a little guy."

“We explained our problem. He told us about the resources we could avail ourselves of: three elders, five of what they call Full Warriors, and basically as many foot soldiers as we needed. We were just flabbergasted. Y’all might not know about the Elders, but they’re – well, they just have access to way more energy than any wizard, almost impossible to kill, reflexes so far beyond the human they’re more like lightning strikes. This group had three _to spare_ , which was more than we thought any particular scourge had. So it’s just a ton of power to be sitting on, and we’re pretty sure that when vamps are peaceful, it means there’s balance between the scourges, so I think that all the scourges are sitting on that kind of firepower. And the fulls -- they'd be a match for me, or Nate, or Raj, easily. It’s fucking scary."

“Anyway. We asked them what they wanted for it. First bid, four thousand people. Like, to enslave, seduce, enthrall, kill, repeatedly terrify, whatever they do, they’ve all got their predilections. The deal is, in case your parents somehow neglected to share this, vampires and the wizards are basically in a truce, and the vamps like it that way and it stays that way only if they don’t eat too many people. But there’s this loophole that their lawyers put in like two centuries ago that any wizard who collaborates with them is solely responsible for the deaths even if the vampires execute. So all of it would just be on us two and Miller wouldn’t get Clinton to drop holy hell on the scourge."

“We found that price a little high, and we thought we could make do with less. Eventually they went with one thousand civilians for two elders and three fulls. Liz and I looked at each other, still worried about it. So the Chieftain said we could just get a hundred people, couldn’t be concentrated in any one place, if one of us would “ascend,” he called it, which meant to get bitten and converted, and take an unbreakable oath to faithfully serve the vamps for ten years. Apparently they covet wizard recruits. Liz and I said we needed to think about it. We went back to our house. Talked about it. About what Putnam had done, what he was. We agreed to flip a coin. I lost. Went to sleep. When I woke up she…had already gone and when I got to Bolivia and they’d bitten her and she was bedridden, recovering, they said I couldn’t see her. Two elders introduced themselves, said they'd all be ready to go when I rounded up the people.”

“Well we’d agreed to do it. It took me about a month to find that many folks I didn’t think the world needed. At that point I was…sort of a different person. It passed in a blur. Vamps were pleased. And we went on the offensive together, this time Liz joining."

“It’d always been close between us. But New-Liz fucking owned. We were approaching the complex again and the dog spirits came and I didn’t detect them, too fast, way too fast for a human and she picked them out and demolished them with a bout of fire to rival yours Jess, but way more focused, and she made it look easy. The walls were made out of something to repel any magic, we got within twenty feet and then were under massive attack, guns, spells, the works, until one of the Elders, dude just transforms into this fifty foot monster like a huge scaled gargoyle, just went up and kicked a hole in this thing, probably ten feet thick and built of something a lot like steel, dude just crushes it, and then turns right back into a little guy in a robe. That scared the shit out of the residents -- whole little town in there, marketplace and church and everything. Turned out the dogs were the best offense and the walls their best defense and they didn’t have much else. Elders ate most of them. Liz too. She had changed. The woman I knew, long gone. The conversion, it does something to your preferences, to your thinking."

“Found the horcrux deep in some basement, destroyed it. Used fiendfyre to destroy the whole fort actually. Did the same thing at the PNG fort. They had a dragon chained up outside. The elders chopped off its chains, and then told me to cast a self-deafening spell because they were going to roar. I did, they opened their mouths and whatever came out scared the dragon enough that it just scrammed. A sizable portion of the guards on the wall just fell off right then, 30 feet down. We took down the rest. Found another horcrux, burned the place down, killed all inhabitants, you know."

“We had thought Putnam just had those two forts but we basically scoured the earth for anything else. Couldn’t find anything, and the vamps can really look, they say they lock onto Horcruxes from a few hundred miles away, something about a spiritual affinity. So there could be some enchantment we don’t know anything about. But the vampires assured me that if we found another one, I would just have to notify them, or they would notify me, and they’d fulfill the contract. They’ve got a long time horizon."

“Liz went back with them. I went back to your parents’ crew. Honestly I think if your mom had been there Jess, they would have let me back in, not made me talk about it. But word had gotten out. I left. I’ve been hunting Putnam’s former supporters. It’s not a great life but I’m doing all right. I average a few confirmed kills a month, not super easy to get rid of them without alarming the rest, a lot of them have prominent positions in various governments. Usually I make it look like internal politics. Haven’t seen Liz. Been picking off Death Eaters when I can. The four I just got will be a nice addition to the tally."

“So what’ve you all been up to? Word is, Death Eaters tried to get Potter, eleven ate it; some of them think that he’s got, like, invisible, gun-wielding demons protecting him. Y’all there for that?"

No one said anything. He had told the story so dispassionately it made my hair stand on end.

[We need to get out. Now. He’s exactly the wrong person for you two to talk to. Please let’s just go.]

[No. We invited him here. He’s not a threat. We should tell him about what we’ve seen.]

[I know I know that seems right but this man’ll kill us. I’m so scared and I love you and please just let’s go, say something if you need to let’s just go]

[Sarah get a grip. We already knew everything he told us in broad outline. Yeah he’s freaking ice but he might be able to make real moves. So just shush for a minute, we're just talking.]

Lev turned to Jordan and began recounting things, while I drank my drink, and then Jess’s. When he'd finished, Jordan put some coins on the table, told us to get in touch again if we were interested in getting serious, and left. A few minutes later, we walked back to the castle.

“Sarah. if you want us not to talk to him again…it’s enough. If you really think we shouldn't see him, I won’t. Can’t speak for Jess."

“Me too. That conversation. Man. When he talked about going out there, it just made my blood boil. I wish I had been there. What I would have done. I know that’s what you’re worried about. What do you think?"

“I…I am not your mothers. I don’t want to meet him. Ever again if I can avoid it. And I want you guys to brief me before you go on the offensive, if you do."

“All right. Jess and I will talk about it. Can we sleep in the tent tonight?"

“Yeah. Meet me by the brook, I’ll go back and get it."

We piled our mattresses into the main room and veiled the whole structure.

“I can’t lose you guys."

“Nothing’s written yet, sweetheart."

“But you’re getting ready."

“We’re here now Sarah."

“Jordan, he’s…"

“Crazy?"

“Evil. It doesn’t have to be raving, foaming at the mouth. It can just be, really really certain that you’re right, that you’re in the right, that’s enough."

“That word has many shades I think."

“Oh God Lev. You’d follow him anywhere wouldn’t you."

“Not if you’re still here. Not if Jess is, or Gemma."

“I’m going to lose you guys. I know it."

“Sleep, Sarah. We’ve got you. Just sleep."


End file.
